Sleeve slitter

ABSTRACT

A chisel has a bent forward portion with a guide surface and a chisel blade projecting at right angles from the guide surface. The tool is for the purpose of slitting sleeves of telephone cables and is operated from a pneumatic hammer.

United States Patent Ray SLEEVE SLITTER [72] Inventor: Jimmy C. Ray, Route 2 P0. Box

33, Denison, Tex. 75020 [22] Filed: Dec. 24, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 101,366

[52] US. Cl ..30/90.4, 30/168 [51] Int. Cl. ..B26b 27/00 [58] Field of Search ..30/90.4, 168,273, 277, 293

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,624,853 4/1927 Winter ..30/l68 2,505,860 5/1950 Jockisch ..30/l68 1 Oct. 17,1972

3,238,618 3/1966 Cook ..30/90.4

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 704,488 2/1954 Great Britain ..30/90.4

Primary Examiner-Robert C. Riordon Assistant Examiner-J. C. Peters Attorney-Charles W. Coffee [57] ABSTRACT A chisel has a bent forward portion with a guide surface and a chisel blade projecting. at right angles from the guide surface. The tool is for the purpose of slitting sleeves of telephone cables and is operated from a pneumatic hammer.

2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures SLEEVE SLITTER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the maintenance and repair of telephone cables, it 1 is often necessary to remove the sleeve placed around splices in a cable containing a plurality of wires. This is customarily done by slitting the sleeve longitudinally and peeling it back. However, care must be taken in slitting the sleeve so that none of the wires within the cable are cut inasmuch as many of the wires may be carrying telephone conversations at the time the sleeve is cut. Furthermore, even if the wires were not carrying telephone conversations, it would be necessary to resplice the same wires which were cut inasmuch as it might cause confusion.

In common commercial practice, at the present time, sleeves on telephone cables are cut with a straight cold chisel, the chisel being driven by a manually operated hammer.

Commercially available on the market are pneumatic hammers with a variety of special cutting blades. E.g., some of these blades have-guide surfaces which are angled from the shank and which have a specialsheet metal cutting blade projecting from the guide surface. However, these sheet metal cutting blades are not adapted for use in cutting telephone cables because they conventionally produce a this strip of curled metal and there is no place to put this curl of metal without interferring with the cables.

The following US. Pats. give an indication of the devices known now:

VANI-IOFF No.2,960,767 CHANDLER No. 3,052,202 KLEIN No. 3,302,158 KREWSON No. 3,208,134 ANNESE ET AL No. 3,231,972 YOUNG No. 3,279,060

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 1) New and Different Function I have solved the problem by providing a chisel with a simple chisel blade projecting from the guarding surface of a tool to be driven by a pneumatic hammer. The

guiding surface limits the depth of the cut made by the chisel blade so that no wires are cut or damaged. Also the simple chisel blade merely slits or spreads the metal on either side of the cut.

(2) Objects of the Invention An object of this invention is to slit sleeves on telephone cables.

Further objects are to achieve the above with a device that is sturdy, compact, durable, lightweight, simple, safe, efficient, versatile, and reliable, yet inexpensive and easy to manufacture, operate, and maintain.

Still further objects are to achieve the above with a method that is versatile, rapid, efficient, and inexpensive, and does not require skilled people to adjust, operate and maintain. I

The specific nature of the invention, as well as other objects, uses, and advantages thereof, will clearly appear from the following description and from the accompanying drawing, the different views of which are not necessarily to the same scale.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 discloses chisel 10 according to this invention. The chisel 10 is inserted into the chuck of pneumatic or 0 air hammer 12. The air hammer has standard connection 14 so it may be attached to a source of gas under pressure. Also, it has finger operated valve button 16 and retaining spring 18. Inasmuch as air hammers are well known and commercially available on the market, it will not be discussed further except to note that it is desirable to use a lightweight air hammer, i.e., one that delivers a rapid series of light blows. I have found that in cutting the sleeves on telephone cables, a hammer that delivers a light blow is more desirable than a hammer which delivers heavy blows.

The chisel 10 has shank 20. Although it is not shown in FIG. 1, the shank 20 will have a butt end 22 and a flange 24. The chisel shank20 is an elongated cylinder; therefore, it has an axis. The shank 20 terminates with point end 26. The bottom surface of the point end 26 has guide surface 28. It will be noted that the point end is angled or bent to the axis of the shank 20. Stated otherwise, the axis of shank 20 angles away from guide surface 28 as seen in the drawing. The embodiment of FIG. 1 shows the tip 30 of the point end 26 sharpened to a chisel edge.

Chisel blade 32 projects at right angles to the guide surface 28. The chisel blade projects from the guide surface and is securely attached as by welding or forged in an integral configuration. It is readily seen from the drawings that the point end 26 of the shank has about the same width and thickness as the shank 20 itself. Havingthe same width and thickness, it has about the same cross sectional area; therefore, it is very easily formed from bar stock. The forward edge 34 of the blade 32 is sharpened to a chisel edge. The chisel edge 34 is recessed back from the tip 30 as seen in the drawings. Also, because of the length of the blade 32, the edge 34 is forward of heel 36, the heel being the rear edge of the guide surface 28 or the break where the guide surface breaks to the shank 20 configuration. Therefore, when using the chisel 10 to slit a sleeve, the depth of the cut may be regulated by rocking the tool back on the heel 36, thus reducing the depth of the cut made by the edge 34. As may be seen from FIG. 1 of the drawings, the tip of the chisel edge 34 angles forward so that the metal cut by the chisel edge 34 tends to rise upward to the surface of the cable rather than to be pushed downward into the cable. The chisel edge 30 may be utilized on other operations.

It will be understood that the blade 32 is rather narrow in width and has approximately the same proportions as the blade 40 shown in the embodiment of FIGS. 2 and 3. The blade 40 has the front edge sharpened to a chisel edge like chisel edge 34.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, chisel 42 is quite similar to chisel 10; i.e., it has the shank 20 with the butt end 22 and flange 24 which would cooperate with the spring 18 of air hammer 12. Also, on the forward end of the chisel 42,-point end 44 is attached to the end of the shank 20 opposite the butt end 22. The point end 44 has guide surface 28 on the underside of it which angles to the axis of shank 20. The blade 40 projects normally or at right angles to the guide surface 28. In this embodiment, the blade 40 is contained within a slot within the point end 44 through the guide surface 28. The blade 40 is held into the slot by pivot pin 46 which extends through the point end 44 and through the blade 40. Setscrew 48 extends through the point end 44 and is threaded to the point end and bears against the back end of the blade 40 while setscrew 50 extends through the point end 44 and bears against the front end of the blade 40 as seen in the drawing. By this means, the depth of the projection of the blade may be regulated.

H6. 2 illustrates the chisel 42 being used to cut sleeve 6 from around a cable, the cable being full of wires 8. As stated above, it is desired to cut through the sleeve 6, but not cut into the wires 8. Therefore, by the manipulation of the screws 48 and 50, the blade 40 is set so that it projects below the guide surface 28 for a distance about equal to the wall thickness of sleeve 6.

The embodiments shown and described above are only exemplary. I do not claim to have invented all the parts, elements or steps described. Various modifications can be made in the construction, material, arrangement, and operation, and still be within the scope of my invention. The limits of the invention and the bounds of the patent protection are measured by and defined in the following claims. The restrictive description and drawing of the specific example above do not point out what an infringement of this patent would be, but are to enable the reader to make and use the invention.

1 claim as my invention:

1. A chisel comprising:

a. a shank having i. an axis and ii. a butt end,

b. a flange on the shank near the butt end,

c. a point end integrally attached to the shank on the opposite end from the butt end,

(1. the point end having about the same width and thickness as the shank end and therefore about the same cross sectional area,

e. the point end having an integral flat guide surface,

f. the point end bent so that the shank axis angles away from the guide surface,

g. a heel formed at the junction of the guide surface rear edge and shank,

h. a chisel blade j. projecting from the guide surface,

k. said chisel blade integral with the point end of the shank,

m. said chisel blade lying in a plane which is i. substantially normal to the guide surface and ii. also contains the shank axis,

n. said chisel blade having a beveled chisel edge thereon,

0. said chisel edge of said blade being behind the tip of the point end,

p. said chisel edge being forward at the heel,

q. said chisel edge of said blade having a tip which angles forward, and

r. the tip of the point end having a beveled chisel edge thereon. A chisel comprising:

. a shank having I. an axis and ii. a butt end,

. a flange on the shank near the butt end,

. a point end integrally attached to the shank on the opposite end from the butt end,

. the point end having about the same width and thickness as the shank end and thereforeabout the same cross sectional area,

e. the point end having an integral flat guide surface,

f. the point end bent so that the shank axis angles away from the guide surface,

g. a heel formed at the junction of the guide surface rear edge and shank,

h. a chisel blade j. projecting from the guide surface,

k. said chisel blade integral with the point end of the shank,

m. said chisel blade lying in a plane which is i. substantially normal to the guide surface and ii. also contains the shank axis,

n. said chisel blade having a beveled chisel edge thereon,

0. said chisel edge of said blade being behind the tip of the point end, p. said chisel edge being forward at the heel,

, q. said chisel edge of said blade having a tip which 

1. A chisel comprising: a. a shank having i. an axis and ii. a butt end, b. a flange on the shank near the butt end, c. a point end integrally attached to the shank on the opposite end from the butt end, d. the point end having about the same width and thickness as the shank end and therefore about the same cross sectional area, e. the point end having an integral flat guide surface, f. the point end bent so that the shank axis angles away from the guide surface, g. a heel formed at the junction of the guide surface rear edge and shank, h. a chisel blade j. projecting from the guide surface, k. said chisel blade integral with the point end of the shank, m. said chisel blade lying in a plane which is i. substantially normal to the guide surface and ii. also contains the shank axis, n. said chisel blade having a beveled chisel edge thereon, o. said chisel edge of said blade being behind the tip of the point end, p. said chisel edge being forward at the heel, q. said chisel edge of said blade having a tip which angles forward, and r. the tip of the point end having a beveled chisel edge thereon.
 2. A chisel comprising: a. a shank having i. an axis and ii. a butt end, b. a flange on the shank near the butt end, c. a point end integrally attached to the shank on the opposite end from the butt end, d. the point end having about the same width and thickness as the shank end and therefore about the same cross sectional area, e. the point end having an integral flat guide surface, f. the point end bent so that the shank axis angles away from the guide surface, g. a heel formed at the junction of the guide surface rear edge and shank, h. a chisel blade j. projecting from the guide surface, k. said chisel blade integral with the point end of the shank, m. said chisel blade lying in a plane which is i. substantially normal to the guide surface and ii. also contains the shank axis, n. said chisel blade having a beveled chisel edge thereon, o. said chisel edge of said blade being behind the tip of the point end, p. said chisel edge being forward at the heel, q. said chisel edge of said blade having a tip which angles forward, r. the tip of the point end having a beveled chisel edge thereon, s. a pneumatic hammer capable of delivering a rapid series of light blows, t. said shank inserted into said hammer, u. a telephone cable having i. a plurality of wires covered by ii. a sleeve, v. said guide surface resting on the surface of the sleeve, and w. said chisel blade cutting longitudinally through said sleeve. 